A gaming laptop without the bulk

The gaming category is one of the last frontiers for thin and light form factors in the mobile space, and if iBuyPower's new Battalion MS1771-1 and MS1771-2 are any indication, gamers needn't worry about lugging around big and heavy laptops. Despite wielding 17.3-inch Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) displays, these Battalion systems are billed as "ultra-thin," with iBuyPower claiming they're the thinnest 17-inch gaming laptops around.

Having debuted late last year with 2nd generation Intel Core processors, ultrabooks moved to 22nm Ivy Bridge chips back in June. But all along, it has been said that ultrabooks will truly come into their own when Intel launches Haswell, its first true system-on-a-chip (SoC). The launch of Ivy Bridge’s successor is still far off, but we will soon have a fair idea of what Intel has in store for us.

Samsung today added five new models to its Series 9 line of ultra-thin laptops, and no one can accuse the company of bringing a knife to a gun fight. Certainly not Apple, whose MacBook Air is still slinging Intel's Core 2 Duo weaponry, at least until the upcoming refresh. In the meantime, the new Series 9 models roll into the war zone armed with Core i3, i5, and i7 canons, mighty big weapons given their stature.

A few days after LG showed off the Core i7-powered 11.6-inch P220 at Computex 2011, another ultra-thin notebook from the company has broken cover. This time it’s a 13.3-inch model called P330. We have the specs of this powerful yet svelte notebook waiting for you after the jump.

Lenovo on Monday officially announced the wafer-thin ThinkPad X1 laptop. If like us, you were closely following all the recent rumors and leaks pertaining to the X1, you already know most of the details. In any case, hit the jump for the detailed specs and price of this rugged ultraportable.

Dell created a bit of a void when the OEM discontinued its Adamo line, and filling that void is the XPS 15z ultra-thin notebook. Or at least it will once it ships. When will that be? It's "coming soon," as Dell CEO Micheal Dell coyly posted on his Twitter account. He also attached a teaser video just for good measure, giving us an additional glimpse to go along with those leaked photos that surfaced earlier this month.

It looks like Windows PC makers are starting to gang up on Apple's MacBook Air. Earlier this week we pointed out that Dell dropped the price on its ultra-think Adamo by a pair of Benjamins, and now Hewlett-Packard is following suit with a price cut of its own.

You can now pick up HP's 13-inch Envy for $1,000 courtesy of a $450 instant rebate. That's a savings of about 31 percent and drops the Envy 13 below that of a 13-inch Macbook Air.

If tablets are going to kill off the netbook market, they're going to have to kick things up a notch or three. According to market research firm iSuppli, netbooks posted double digit growth so far in 2010, the result of improved economic conditions around the world.

"Despite the worldwide recession last year, consumers were enthusiastic about notebooks, a trend that will persist in 2010 especially for the market's two fastest-growing segments-the netbook and the ultra-thin notebook," said Peter Lin, senior analyst for compute platforms at iSuppli.

Netbooks shipments are expect to surge to 34.5 million units in 2010, a 30 percent increase over one year ago, and by 2014, iSuppli forecasts netbook shipments in the neighborhood of 58.3 million. At the same time, ultra-thins are becoming extremely popular and will ship nearly 14.5 million units in 2010, equivalent to a 93 percent increase from the 7.5 million units shipped in 2009.

Word from those deep in the trenches of the notebook market is that Intel has decided to hold off on launching new ultra-thin notebook chips until the third quarter.

Intel might even decide to wait longer, depending on how the market shapes up. Most notebook makers noted that ultra-thins only accounted for 10-15 percent of their total shipments in 2009, much lower than the 20-30 percent they were predicting. As a result, notebook makers have reduced their orders to clear out existing inventories.

Interestingly, Asus VP Tony Chen said that his company's ultra-thins currently account for about 40 percent of total shipments in Taiwan, but worldwide, that number drops down to 15 percent.

LG is looking to expand to its ultra-thin lineup, and the company will do that with two new models, both of which fall under LG's T280 series.

The two models include the T280-GR63K powered by Intel's Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor clocked at 1.3GHz, and the T280-LR3PK equipped with Intel's Pentium SU4100 chip.

Other than the processor, the two models appear to be the same. Both come with an 11.6-inch screen with a 1366 x 768 resolution, and both sport 2GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics, HDMI-out, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and the usual assortment of odds and ends.